Sunday, June 3, 2012

Cherries "LKavod Shabbas"


[explanation for those that may need it: The Jewish Sabbath ("Shabbas"), is celebrated, amongst other ways, by eating three festive meals. It is customary to purchase and/or prepare especially good food for the Sabbath. This food  is bought "LKavod" ("in honor of") the Sabbath.]
POST:
   Losing weight has not only enhanced my health. It has enhanced my observance of the seventh day, Shabbas. Here's why…
  Have you ever baked a cake "LKavod shabbas", only to eat more on Friday than on the Sabbath? Or purchased a food item for the Sabbath in amounts plentiful enough for Friday AND shabbas? That used to happen to me a lot. Yes, there is a custom to taste the Sabbath food being cooked on Thursday or Friday to be sure that it is tasty, but let's not kid ourselves. In many households much of the Sabbath food is sampled in quantity on Friday, making it a bit less special on the Sabbath.
   But now that I am dieting, I strain to keep my calorie count on Fridays to a minimum, knowing that I have a two course meal ahead Friday evening. So I bake the "shabbas cake" with one tiny lick of the batter (to be sure that I didn't substitute salt for sugar and the like…), and generally save the cake itself for Saturday morning. And the cherries I bought specially "LKavod shabbas" this week went untasted by me until shabbas. And when I DID have them, they were REALLY in honor of the seventh day, and not just a weekly excuse to indulge….



1 comment:

Debbie said...

We had cherries for Shabbos, too! Mmmmm!